I’m hoping that this isn’t as bad as it looks, because the title of this article from Techspot says that “Star Citizen” has been put back indefinitely…Well, here’s a fast recap for those who are not familiar with “Star Citizen”. It’s a crowdfunded game from the developer Chris Roberts (the director for Cloud Imperium Games) whom started the idea of the game back in 2012, with hopes of raising $0.5 million to get it off the ground. Long story short, the developer would have easily given this idea to an AAA developer, but wanted to avoid the pressures from a corporation (according to Techspot). So in the end “Star Citizen” ended up raising $148 million, and the more money that was given to the cause, the larger the scope spread. Nevertheless, the game was pushed back to 2016 as the budget grew, but right now there is no release date.
However, just because there is no known release date, does not mean that “Star Citizen” is not ever going to come out. I believe the title of the article is a little too frightening for the actual situation. As stated, he pushed back the game two years in order to widen the scope. He only wanted to fund half of a million to make the game, expecting anything else to come from investors, which is understandable. $148 million is a lot of money, and if he could make a playable game with $0.5 million, I couldn’t even imagine how great of a game he could make with the money raised.
So no, I would not say it’s as bad as it looks (I find a “Duke Nukem” nightmare scenario to be very unlikely – Robin). I want to be optimistic and say that he’s taking the time necessary to make a game worthy of the crowdfunding. That seems to be the situation given the extra two years given in the past, and I am yet to find anything just yet to show that there is no intention of never releasing the game.
I did not donate to the game and prior to writing this article, I believe I’ve only heard of the game in passing but cannot recall where I heard of it, but if I did donate to the game, I would want them to take as much time as possible. I would want them to delay the game if necessary to avoid angering the audience that spent so much time and tons of money supporting the game. Yes, saying “delayed indefinitely” sounds bad. Nevertheless, I do not believe that it is what they mean. I believe this could very well be a “Final Fantasy XV” type of situation where the game takes a while (in this case, hopefully not ten years), but it’s well worth it by the end. Take it for what you will, but I believe the title of the article makes it sound far worse than it actually is, and we should wait for further word from the developer in order to get more of an idea of what we’re looking at.
Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor
Source:
Techspot
NY Times
Forbes
Kickstarter
Question and Answer Thread – May 18 2017 (Reddit)
***Disclaimer***
1. This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.
2. I do not know much about the game prior to what is written in the article. In this way, I am not attempting to defend this game due to any personal conflicts.
Justin Easler
Senior editor
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @masterjayshay
More by Justin Easler:
Tags: Amazon Lumberyard, Chris Roberts, Cloud Imperium Games, Indie games, Kickstarter, MMO games, Star Citizen